[thechat] roll yr own blackout
Erika Meyer
emeyer at lclark.edu
Mon May 21 15:27:25 CDT 2001
>>>I mean, the next logical step is to just outlaw smoking, drinking,
>>>guns, sex, red meat, fried foods, video games, the internet
>>>because let's face it, none of it's really safe for us.
>>
>>the best argument you can make is a fallacious one?
>
>I'd hardly call it fallcious. Baby steps. Every step forward gives
>argument to someone else who wishes to advance his own personal
>causes. "Well, if Mr. X can do Y, why can't I do Z? It's all in
>the name of public safety, after all."
http://www.mackido.com/Thought/SlipperySlope.html?print
not saying it's totally invalid, just fallacious.
>Maybe I should have rephrased my initial argument better:
>
>It's not the government's place to be mandating the safety of our
>nation's citizens when it comes to personal decisions.
okay then. There can be a fuzzy border between personal and public
however. If my neighbor wants to douse his lawn with DDT, I'd want
to be able to say, even do something about it.
>We've gone off on a tangent. In terms of personal decisions, I'm
>quite Libertarian.
not me. Libertarians tend to be too individualistic "each man for
himself" for me.
We live in a global community and everything we do affects the lives of others.
Erika
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